18. 12. 2011

More democracy and less freedom of the media

Belgrade, December 18, 2011 (Blic) - Of 167 countries, Serbia is positioned on the 64^th place on the index of democracy this year, which is one place better than last year, the "Economist Intelligence Unit" published in the annual report. However, Serbia is also the country with a deterioration of media freedom in the last three years. The report "Democracy under pressure" has classified countries by types of regime as a "full democracy", "deficient democracy", "hybrid regimes" and "authoritarian regimes". Serbia is in the second group together with another 40 countries with a deterioration of media freedom, compared to 2008.

The deterioration of media freedom in the past three years is something that should be a warning signal to all the institutions that determine the rules of the game for either electronic or print media - director of "Transparency Serbia" and analyst of political and social events Vladimir Goati told the "Blic" daily.

Goati notes that the fact that Serbia falls in the group of deficient democracy countries, or "electoral democracy", implies that Serbia is a country with electoral freedom, but there is little respect when it comes to civil freedoms, human and collective rights.

As for the countries of the region, Serbia is better placed on the EIU democracy index than Macedonia (73), Montenegro (74), Albania (84), Bosnia and Herzegovina (95), but is lower than Slovenia (30), Hungary (49), Bulgaria (52), Croatia (53) and Romania (59).

In fact, according to the report of analytical and advisory branch of the "Economist group", media freedom has deteriorated compared to a period of three years ago, not only in Serbia but also in France, Italy, Turkey, Hungary, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania and Russia. Even 12 of the 28 Eastern European countries have registered a decrease in the assessment of democracy this year.

The first five places on the top of the list of 165 countries and two territories belong to Norway, Iceland, Denmark, Sweden and New Zealand, while the last five are occupied by Myanmar, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Chad and North Korea.

The report notes that this year was extremely politically turbulent, due to the crisis and weak political leadership in the developed world, dramatic shifts and conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa, as well as growing social turmoil in a large part of the world.

Types of regime

Full democracies:

New Zealand, Australia, Canada, U.S.A., Japan, South Korea, Most EU member states

Deficient democracies:

Serbia, Cape Verde Islands, Portugal, France, Slovenia, Italy, Greece

Hybrid regimes:

Albania, Turkey, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iraq

Authoritarian regimes:

Egypt, Russia, Jordan, Morocco, Kuwait, Libya, Cuba, China, United Arab Emirates

*Categories under which the state of democracy is assessed are electoral process and pluralism, functioning of the government, political involvement, political culture and civil freedoms.